It's an up and down story as Holden reveals fuel consumption figures for the VE Commodore, reports GLENN BUTLER.

Mixed results for Commodore fuel economy

Fuel economy figures released today by Holden confirm that some models in the new VE Commodore range are more economical than before, despite using the same engines and weighing around 100kg more.

It's not all good news for Holden, with other models consuming between 0.2 and 0.3 litres more than equivalent VZ models. The new six-speed automatic transmission, generally expected to be more economical than the four-speed auto it replaces, appears to be the culprit.

This is surprising because six-speed automatic versions of the Ford Falcon, Holden's traditional rival, are significantly more economical than four-speed automatic Falcons.

In fact Holden is only able to equal Falcon consumption on the base model Omega. Other Falcon models like the Fairmont Ghia 6 cylinder with a six-speed auto (10.2) and the Falcon XR8 6sp auto (13.7) comprehensively beat it.

Models with the new six-speed automatic transmission developed by General Motors in North America are up across the board by 0.3 litres. Holden engineering director Tony Hyde said the problem lies with the exact gear ratios.

The volume model Omega V6 is rated at 10.9 litres/100km, down 0.1 litres on the VZ Executive. Likewise the Berlina V6, SV6 manual and automatic, Calais V6 and SS and SS V manual are down between one-tenth and two-tenths of a litre.

Hyde also moved to refute speculation Holden boss Denny Mooney had misled media when he said last week he did not know the fuel consumption figures for the new Commodore.

"Denny honestly did not know the final figure at that time. In fact I know he only found out this weekend, because we only finished the validation testing on Thursday night before finalising the data on Friday."

Reports of VE Commodores wearing 11.0 litres/100km labels started filtering in to Holden fan forums early last week. When confronted with this report, Hyde chose his words carefully, not admitting that earlier tests on development cars had achieved this economy rating.

He did admit, however, that production cars are usually more economical than development cars, and that stickers on hundreds of production vehicles would have to be changed.

"We'll rip them off and we're going to put new ones on."

Hyde said the reason for the Calais V V6's increased consumption over the Calais was because its kerb weight moved it into a higher weight category for testing.

Weights for each model in the new VE Commodore range have been revealed to media, but a Holden embargo on specific portions of today's press briefing prevents us going into more detail before 5pm Tuesday, July 25.

The full range of Commodore models are their related fuel economy figure is in the table below

Omega V6

4sp auto

10.9

(-0.1)

Berlina V6

4sp auto

10.9

(-0.1)

Berlina V8

6sp auto

14.3

(+0.3)

SV6 V6

6sp man

11.0

(-0.4)

SV6 V6

5sp auto

11.3

(-0.1)

SS V8

6sp man

14.4

(-0.2)

SS V8

6sp auto

14.3

(+0.3)

SS V V8

6sp man

14.4

(-0.2)

SS V V8

6sp auto

14.3

(+0.3)

Calais V6

5sp auto

11.3

(-0.1)

Calais V8

6sp auto

14.3

(+0.3)

Calais V V6

5sp auto

11.6

(+0.2)

Calais V V8

6sp auto

14.3

(+0.3)

* All figures were achieved with air conditioning equipped and running 95RON unleaded petrol.

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